BurmaNet News September 7, 1995

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The BurmaNet News: September 7, 1995
Issue #217
Noted in Passing:
We just want to read a good newspaper that contains facts and
balanced news. - Khin Soe Win on basic rights which Burmese
citizens, men and women, should be allowed. (quoted in Burmese
Businesswomen Give Poor Counterparts A Helping Hand)
HEADLINES:
==========
THE NATION: BURMA SAID TO BE RELOCATING VILLAGERS FOR
A TOURIST 'ZOO'
THE NATION: KAREN PEOPLE URGED TO UNITE
THE NATION: US BUSINESSMEN IN BURMA
BKK POST: KARENS ISSUE FRESH CALL FOR DIALOGUE
NCGUB: STATEMENT ON DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI'S ADDRESS
ABSDF-MTZ: CURRENT POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT INSIDE BURMA
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: SUU KYI CALLS FOR HALT TO
INVESTMENT IN BURMA.
REUTER: DEMOCRATIC POWER TRANSFER IN BURMA URGED
BKK POST: FIRST AIDS CENTRE
BKK POST: BURMA MEETING
BKK POST: BURMESE BUSINESSWOMEN GIVE POOR COUNTERPARTS
BKK POST: BURMESE ILLEGAL WORKERS LEAVE BORDER AREAS
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THE NATION: BURMA SAID TO BE RELOCATING VILLAGERS FOR
A TOURIST 'ZOO' September 6, 1995 Reuter
Burmese authorities are relocating "long-necked" minority women
from their homes in eastern Burma to Rangoon to live in a model-
village tourist attraction, a Burmese opposition group said
yesterday.
Ethnic minority people from more than 200 villages in Thandaung
township in the hills of northern Karen state have been ordered to
leave their homes by Nov 10, the dissident All Burma Students'
Democratic Front (ABSDF) said in a statement.
Among the hill people ordered to move to new locations on the low-
land are members of the Padaung ethnic group whose women put metal
rings around their necks giving them a "long-necked" look.
The ABSDF said some of the Padaung people will be forced to live in
a model village, which is being built near Rangoon in time for next
year's "Visit Myanmar Year" and is described by the dissidents as
an "ethnic human zoo".
Many of the hill people were resisting the order to move and had
fled into the forest instead, the ABSDF said.
Independent confirmation of the ABSDF's report was not available
but Padaung people have been promoted as tourist attractions
before.
A small group of Padaung women was taken from Burma to live in
northwestern Thailand where tourists are charged money to take
pictures of them.
Another small group of Padaung people live near Burma's Inle Lake
tourist destination in southern Shan state where tourists are also
charged to visit and take photographs.
The Padaung people are sub-group of the Karen minority and live in
the hills of eastern Burma's Karen and Kayah states.
The ABSDF was formed in late 1988 by students who fled a bloody
military crackdown on pro-democracy protests that year to take up
arms alongside minority guerrillas fighting for autonomy in Burma's
remote frontier areas. (TN)
====item====
THE NATION: KAREN PEOPLE URGED TO UNITE
September 6, 1995
Karen National Union leader Gen Bo Mya announced a new administra
tive committee's policy calling on the Karen people to unite in an
attempt to consolidate their position concerning the Burmese
military junta.
The policy was announced via letters circulated among KNU bases
along the Thai-Burmese border, near Thailand's provinces of Tak and
Mae Hong Son.
It outlined the KNU's newly-elected committee's policy, which
focuses on the consolidation of the group's political power and the
strengthening of its army.
It also stressed its efforts to bring about genuine peace and
stability through negotiations with the Burmese junta, known as the
State Law and Order restoration Council, and to cooperate with
other ethnic minorities in achieving its goal of a democratic
federal state.
At the KNU meeting last month to elect the group's 55-member
standing committee, Bo Mya was re-elected as president but was
replaced by Gen Tam La Bow as supreme commander-in-chief.
Meanwhile, Brig Gen Tinn Maung, commander of KNU's 7th Battalion,
issued a statement urging members of a Karen Buddhist faction which
defected to the Burmese army last year to return to the KNU fold.
Tinn Maung said in the letter that number of civilians who belonged
to the group had returned to the KNU bases because of the
mistreatment by Burmese soldiers.
He quoted those returnees as saying they were forced to replace
Burmese soldiers in controlling border areas, pitting them against
the KNU.
The factions' bases were presently located along the border
opposite Tak's districts of Mae Sot, Mae Ramat and Tha Song Yang.
====item====
THE NATION: US BUSINESSMEN IN BURMA
September 6, 1995 AFP
A group of leading US entrepreneurs met senior members of the
Burmese military junta on Monday, state-run Burmese radio reported.
The business group, headed by the vice-president of US oil giant
Texaco Company, held meetings with Burmese military leaders
including Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Admiral Maung Maung Khin,
national intelligence chief Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt and
Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw, Radio Rangoon said.
Maung Maung Khin is also the chairman of Burma's Foreign Investment
Commission. The Americans also called on Burmese National Planning
and Economic Development Minister Brigadier general David Abel
before attending a dinner whose host was Burmese Energy Minister,
Khin Maung Thein, it said. (TN)
====item====
BANGKOK POST: KARENS ISSUE FRESH CALL FOR DIALOGUE
September 6, 1995
The Karen National Union (KNU) has issued a fresh call for dialogue
with the ruling military junta in Rangoon after a KNU congress
which returned veteran leader Bo Mya as the organisation's president.
In a statement seen here on Monday, the KNU also said it would
"further strengthen" the Karen National Liberation Army and Karen
National Defence Organisation to serve the Karen resistance to
Rangoon.
Urging "unity for the entire Karen nation," the KNU said it would
"endeavour for a dialogue between the KNU and Slorc for the
establishment of genuine and lasting peace in the country."
Slorc refers to the State Law and Order restoration Council, as
the junta is officially known. Bo Mya's return to the KNU
leadership surprised observers who had expected him to be replaced
after Karen guerrillas were virtually eliminated as a military
threat at the start of the year.
The 11th Karen Congress, held at an unspecified location from
August 21-31, was the first since the breakaway Democratic Kayin
Buddhist Organisation (DKBO) helped Slorc forces drive the KNU
from their strongholds on the Thai-Burma border.
* Meanwhile, a leading ethnic Mon guerrilla leader Nai Shwe Kyin
held a meeting with Burmese military leader General Than Shwe at
the Burmese Defence Ministry yesterday, official Burmese radio
said. (BP)
**************
NCGUB ON DAW SUU'S STATEMENT AT UN WOMEN'S CONF
----------------------------------------------------------
NATIONAL COALITION GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION OF BURMA
I N F O R M A T I O N O F F I C E
815 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 910, Washington, DC 20005
Tel: (202) 393-7342 (202) 393-4312, Fax: (202) 393-7343
----------------------------------------------------------
NCGUB: STATEMENT ON DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI'S ADDRESS
TO THE NGO FORUM AT UN WOMEN'S CONFERENCE IN BEIJING
September 5, 1995
The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma welcomes the
international response to the address made by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to the
United Nations Women's Conference in China. We look forward to the time
when women in Burma, and the rest of the world, will be able to
participate as equals in all spheres, especially in the governing of
their own countries.
In Burma, as in many traditional societies, there are fundamental
inequalities in the condition of women that need to be addressed. But as
the situation in Burma also shows, it is difficult if not impossible to
make progress in resolving these societal inequities without a free and
democratic government. As our cause for democracy is inseparably linked
to the cause of equality that the groups meeting in China are pursuing,
so must our efforts be linked.
We call attention to the threatening tone of General Khin Nyunt's warning
to those he says are fabricating and disseminating news that women in the
Western and European Nations are enjoying rights but those in Asian and
African nations are not. While the rights of no one in Burma are safe
under the current regime, it must be noted that women are especially
vulnerable and often experience even greater abuses than men. It is
because of this background of violence against women in Burma that Daw
Suu's call for equality and security is especially courageous.
In Burma, it is only the vigilance of the international community that
now stands between those, who would use violence both in the home and in
the streets, and the people. We call on the international community to
maintain that vigilance to help protect the security of all the women of
Burma, particularly that of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who, because of her
calls for democracy and dialogue for national reconciliation, is seen as
a threat by the military regime.
***************************
ABSDF-MTZ: CURRENT POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT INSIDE BURMA
September 6, 1995
____________________________________________________
ALL BURMA STUDENT'S DEMOCRATIC FRONT
____________________________________________________
PRESS RELEASE
Current Political development inside Burma
Inside sources
I. Aung San Suu Kyi contributes assistance to political prisoners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi meets the people in front of her home every weekend and
gives a speech regarding democratic causes. Now the number at the gathering is over
1000.
A Rangoon resident said that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has organized a Committee to
provide assistance to political prisoners in different jails in Burma. She has recently
contributed 1000 kyat including a towel and necessary medicines for each political
prisoner. "The People express their support to her great attempt," he added.
The Committee has also provided assistance for the poor family members of the
political prisoners. There are now about over 3000 political prisoners still detained in
the different prisons in Burma. "She said that she will continue to urge the Slorc for
their release calling the people to give her support" said another resident in Rangoon.
II. Most Political prisoners will end their sentences soon
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was reported from inside Burma that there are now over 3000 political prisoners in
different jails of Burma. Most of the political prisoners will complete their sentences
by the end of this year. It probably seems to be the Slorc that finding a way to take
advantage of the situation by announcing an amnesty or something like that, said a
resident in Rangoon. Slorc may announce an amnesty to exploit the situation, said
one of the political prisoners.
III. Top brass reshuffle soon
--------------------------------------------
A rumour which has been spread inside Burma is that the internal split between the
top brass of the Burma military has become broader. Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt seems to
have lost some power while Gen. Maung Aye's clique becomes more powerful. Senior
Gen. Than Shwe will retire by the end of this year and Gen. Maung Aye will take his
place as the Chairman of the Slorc, a Rangoon resident said quoting the rumours.
VOICE OF THE PEACOCK
Information Department
All Burma Students' Democratic Front(Chairman_Moe Thee Zun)
8888 camps
For More information contact: Zaw Min_Joint Secretary of Foreign Affairs
of the ABSDF
e-mail: lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
************************
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: SUU KYI CALLS FOR HALT TO
INVESTMENT IN BURMA.
September 4, 1995 By Mark Baker
RANGOON, Sunday: The Burmese opposition leader, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi,
has called on international business, including Australian companies, to
suspend investment until her country is democratic.
She said a recent boom in foreign investment was enriching the military
leadership and doing nothing to help ordinary Burmese, who were living in
worsening poverty.
I would like those companies to wait and see, to wait for the time when
whatever they do will benefit the people who need it most, she told the
Herald.
The Burmese regime has approved projects worth about $4 billion since it
took power after crushing a pro-democracy uprising in 1988. Most of the
investment has been in mining, logging and the construction of new
tourist hotels.
Despite Canberras policy of neither encouraging nor discouraging
investment in Burma, there had been a threefold increase in the number of
Australian companies sending exploratory missions there in the past 18
months.
It is believed that several big Austrlian companies - including BHP, CRA
and Transfield - are discussing substantial new projects with the regime.
Ms Suu Kyi, who was released from six years of house arrest in July, has
called for dialogue towards a return to democratic government. But the
military is pushing ahead with plans for a new constitution which will
entrench their control.
Foreign investors should realise there could be no sustained economic
growth and opportunities in Burma until there was agreement on the
countrys political future, Ms Suu Kyi said.
You can't sustain economic development without peace and stability, and to
have peace and stability there must be trust, and that is one thing that
is lacking, she said.
Inflation is absolutely terrible. I think you judge the progress of a
country basically from how the peoples health and education is, and there
has been a deterioration.
She said hospitals were seriously short of medicines, and spending on
education was contracting. Burma's inflation rate is about 40 per cent,
with the price of rice soaring in recent months.
Ms Suu Kyi also said Burma should not to be admitted as a member of the
seven-nation Association of South-East Asian Nations until it had a
democratically elected government.
**********************************
REUTER: DEMOCRATIC POWER TRANSFER IN BURMA URGED
September 4, 1995
SEOUL, (Reuter) - An Asia-Pacific forum in Seoul on Monday
called for a peaceful power transfer from Burma's military government to the
civilian politicians elected five years ago.
``(We) welcome with gladness the unconditionally release from house
arrest of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on July 10, 1995,'' the Forum of Democratic
Leaders in the Asia Pacific (FDL), led by South Korea's veteran opposition
leader Kim Dae-jung, said in a resolution.
The resolution, adopted at the end of an FDL two-day conference in Seoul,
urged Burma's ruling military-run State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) to ``participate in the honorable transformation of Burma's military
into an institution fully resonsible to a democratically elected
government.''
Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released in July from nearly six
years of house arrest.
The participants of the FDL session also called on the SLORC to pursue
dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratic political forces in Burma
on a peaceful transfer of power.
The FDL, a non-governmental body inaugurated in Seoul last December aimed
at promoting democracy in the Asia-Pacific region, plans another conference
in Manila in early December to discuss possible lessons for Burma of recent
transitions from authoritarian to democratic rule.
It said the conference was suggested by Aung San Suu Kyi.
``The FDL has renewed its commitment to work for democracy in Burma by
all peaceful means,'' FDL Secretary-General Kim Sang-woo told reporters.
BKK POST: FIRST AIDS CENTRE
September 5, 1995
THE Red Cross Society in Burma recently laid foundations for its
first AIDS Centre in Rangoon. According to World Health
Organisation data there were about 130 AIDS cases in the country
in 1993. A Rangoon-based WHO official said the number of HIV
carriers was estimated to have reached 350,000 last year.
BKK POST: BURMA MEETING
September 5, 1995
THE Burmese government last week held a three-day conference on
environmental management to promote and provide expertise on the
issue. It was jointly organised by Burma's National Commission
for Environmental Affairs and Germany's Hanns Seidel Foundation.
The 30 participants were from ASEAN and United Nations' agencies
such as the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific (ESCAP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
BKK POST: US$56M IN AID
September 5, 1995
BURMA and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have agreed
to cooperate on programmes from 1996 to 2000. The UN agency will
provide $56 million to Burma to cover health and nutritional
development, availability of water and sanitation, education and
child development, communication and organisation, and child
rights and protection under an agreement signed by Burmese
Minister for National Planning and Economic Development Brig-Gen
David Abel and UNICEF resident representative S.H. Umemoto.
**************************************************************
BKK POST: BURMESE BUSINESSWOMEN GIVE POOR COUNTERPARTS
A HELPING HAND September 5, 1995
Escaping from loan sharks
REPORT and PICTURES:
Nussara Sawatsawang
Rangoon
BURMESE BUSINESSWOMEN are pooling their efforts to make life
easier for other women who are less well off.
Through the Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs' Association, academics,
writers, actresses and civil servants and women in businesses
ranging from jewellery to computer technology are battling to
help others stand on their own and achieve their potential.
The association was initiated by Yi Yi Myint, professor of
management studies at Rangoon University's Institute of
Economics.
"We aim to encourage Burmese women, who simply lack
opportunities, to reach their level of capability. We're not
grouping for the sake of strengthening members' businesses, as
some have misunderstood," she said in an interview with Inside
Indochina.
Shortly after its formation, the association began a pilot
project to provide interest-free loans to women who sell
vegetables at four bazaars in Rangoon.
The experiment was inspired by the fact most of these vendors
have to borrow money privately to buy goods at dawn and repay it
at dusk, together with interest of up to 20 per cent per day.
The project began by allocating 5,000 kyat to each of two groups
in a bazaar. Shared among the five members of each group, the
money helps them avoid loan sharks.
Association members each paid 10,000 kyat to fund the scheme.
Borrowers must repay their capital of 1,000 kyat to their group
leader, in 100-kyat installments, over 12 weeks.
The loan cycle then resumes from a 1,200-kyat base, with the
members then repaying the money in 120-kyat installments over 12
weeks.
----------------------------------------------------------------
| As their men-dominated governments grapple with reshaping the |
| economy and maintaining political stability, women of Burma, |
| Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are not idle. |
| |
| Cosmetics, beauty pageants and consumerism have struck chords|
| with the affluent minorities in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, |
| Vientiane, Phnom Penh and, to a lesser extent, Rangoon. But |
| the majority of women have yet to share In luxuries. |
| |
| While the Fourth World Conference on Women proceeds in |
| Beijing, Inside Indochina documents activities of women around|
| the region, a vibrant force whose potential remains to be |
| achieved. |
| |
| Related reports on pages 2 and 3. |
----------------------------------------------------------------
The association hopes that at the end of 18 months, the vendors
will have saved 1,000 kyats, which would otherwise have gone to
loan sharks, to fund further business.
The scheme would enable traders to do business with their own
money and end their costly borrowing, Yi Yi Myint said.
A poor family of five normally needs 3,000 kyat (about 700 baht)
per month to survive. They usually borrow privately to buy goods
for resale at peak hours. But when they repay the loan at 20 per
cent daily interest they have nothing left to live on.
Yi Yi Myint said the project stemmed from a similar scheme
operated by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which has a system of
repayment and savings to ease the burden on women with families.
Keenly interested in the way of life of women in bazaars, Yi Yi
Myint has for years sought ways to improve Burmese women's access
to credit, and financial institutions.
According to the paper she presented at an Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific meeting in Bangkok late last
year, most unskilled Burmese women in petty trade belong to the
economically active group (15-59 years of age), with no more than
primary education.
Yi Yi Myint said formal government credits did not work for these
people who lacked collateral, guarantors or audited financial
statements which were mandatory in applying for official bank
credits.
It will take time to see whether the association's programme
works.
Khin Soe Win, who is in charge of the group's national and
international relations said it was not easy to ensure its
members and those they were helping understood the project's
goals.
The word "help" is used instead of "grant" to ensure vendors do
not mistake the credit as a free handout.
Although Burma has captured international attention because of
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, the
entrepreneurs' association steers clear of politics and was
registered as a social organisation under the Ministry of Home
Affairs, a safer approach given the country's state of military
rule.
Khin Soe Win said the issue of greatest concern was not women's
rights, but basic human rights and freedom of expression.
"We just want to read a good newspaper that contains facts and
balanced news," she said, elaborating on basic rights Burmese
citizens, men and women, should be allowed.
****************************************************************
BKK POST: BURMESE ILLEGAL WORKERS LEAVE BORDER
AREAS FOR 'GREENER PASTURES' IN CITY
September 5, 1995 Mae Sot
ILLEGAL immigrants from Burma who have been working for Thai
firms are reportedly leaving the border area in large numbers.
Their employers have delayed paying the necessary guarantee money
on their behalf, and they are therefore seeking work in other
provinces and in Bangkok.
This has caused a severe labour shortage in some districts and
could have an adverse effect on the investment climate in Tak
province, local sources say.
Businesses here hiring Burmese immigrants are required to
register their names with local Administration Department
officials, who issue identity cards.
To get these, employers have to Pay the immigration office
guarantee money of 5,000 baht for each worker.
The Tak provincial administration announced on May 21 that Thai
employers must pay guarantee money for Burmese workers who were
registered before August 21.
It agreed to extend the payment period to the end of last month
after finding that a considerable number of employers have not
deposited the money with the immigration office.
The chairman of Tak Chamber of Commerce, Niyom Vairatpanich, said
yesterday that only four employers had so far paid the guarantee
money, for a total of only 300 Burmese workers.
Mr Niyom said several employers were reluctant to pay the money.
They feared losing it if Burmese workers were persuaded by agents
they could find higher-paid work elsewhere.
Some employers have demanded that the Burmese immigrants pay the
5,000 baht guarantee money themselves.
The immigration police will return the money to Burmese workers
and send them home after they resign from their jobs.
Some businessmen are waiting for a response from the Interior and
Labour and Social Welfare ministries to their requests for a
reduction of the guarantee money required from 5,000 to 1,000
baht.
Mr Niyom said the Local Administration Department had registered
27,603 Burmese labourers in Mae Sot, Mae Ramat and Phop Phra
districts in October 1993.
Only about 7,000 of them had shown up to pick up their ID cards,
he said.
A member of the Tak Chamber of Commerce, Somjit Limruecha, said
that some illegal Burmese immigrants would prefer to pay the
5,000 baht to agents. These agents can arrange to take them to other
large towns or to Bangkok, where they can make more money.
Several thousand Burmese immigrants have been smuggled out of Tak
by agents, he said.
Mr. Somjit, owner and man owner and manufacture director of Maha
Bura pha Canning Co Ltd, which is based in Mae Sot, said his
factory faced serious operational problems.
This is because he lost half of his 700 Burmese workers to
agents or "human trafficking rings", as they are called.
Burmese who have not yet been registered and who have no ID cards
are not allowed to work.
Many of those who worked illegally in Tak decided to sneak out of
the province for fear that they might be arrested if the
authorities inspected the factories, Mr Somjit said.
Several entrepreneurs are reported to be concerned that the flow
of Burmese workers out of Tak might affect the labour situation
in the province. Some even plan to shift production to other areas.
Manufacturers originally invested in Mae Sot and other border
districts because the labour situation was considered favourable,
even though basic infrastructure is poor, he said
But if the current labour problem is not tackled, the
manufacturers may have to move to other areas which have better
infrastructure.
"Mae Sot will then become a ghost town," he said.